‘Language, literature vital for national development

The role of language in the development of a country such as Nigeria has been emphasised at a conference on language, literature and national consciousness.

The three-day conference was organised by the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Anambra State University, Igbariam Campus.

The Head of Department of English, Dr. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, expressed the need to address issues as armed robbery, kidnapping, climate change, gross unemployment, the bottomless gulf between the government and the governed, mass deaths, jungle justices, terrorism and other forms of organised crimes with reading of literature.

Dr Chuma-Udeh said through the manipulations of language and the apt use of words, positive change can be brought about in any society.

The chairman of the occasion, Prof. Sam Ukala, pointed out that any nation that dreams of development, even in science and technology, must pay attention to the study of the disciplines that can positively cultivate the mind, such as language and literature.

According to Ukala, it is the uncertainty in the mind of the Nigerian nation about the functions of language, literature and the rest of the humanities in nation building that is responsible for the government’s discrimination against the Arts, which manifests clearly in the admission quotas foisted on the Nigerian Universities by the Nigerian Government.

These quotas ensure that for every 60 students admitted into the sciences, only 40 may be admitted into the Arts.

Ukala stressed further that it is odd to regulate university admissions in disfavour of Arts not minding the powers of the Arts in fostering all-round development by generating in the imagination the dreams upon which Science and Technology are built.

The keynote speaker, Major General D. M. Isah represented by Colonel Taritimiye Gagariga, commanding officer of the Nigerian Army 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, equally noted that Language and Literature must be a means of driving a country’s development, pointing out that countries like Japan, China, France and USA, whom we emulate, do promote their mother local dialects as well as their official language.

According to him, “We should endeavour to speak our mother tongue, use it in the media, publications, writing of various sorts and the products we sample in the labour market or sell to our neighbouring countries.

”Our mother tongue should also be used as a means of learning in Arts, Science and Technology because most developed countries succeeded by developing interest in their own local dialects as much as they speak other languages.”

He charged the federal government to implement the use of mother tongues as much as possible, since it has been made compulsory in schools, so that the nation will witness a tremendous improvement in her pursuit of development, unity and integrity.

Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo of the Department of English, University of Lagos, encouraged the participants and students to pass the good message to the public on the need to evolve a new consciousness whereby Nigerians will harnessing what they have, believing in themselves and pushing for a more positive way of realising their dream of being among the best as against the current culture of borrowing everything from others.